Minimally invasive and endoscopic procedures continue to be popular among surgeons, and the number of procedures is expected to steadily increase in the coming years. Compared to open surgeries, minimally invasive procedures allow patients to heal faster, with a shorter convalescence period and decreased risk for wound complications. However, minimally invasive procedures introduce a number of difficulties due to limited access and visibility inside the body cavity. The procedures typically involve making small incisions to introduce equipment and scopes into the body cavity in order to perform complicated medical procedures, such as ligating, cutting, clamping, suturing, and/or repairing tissue. Consequently, these difficulties often require skilled surgeons and excellent visualization obtained through a scope.
One of the most common problems that prolongs the minimally invasive procedure is associated with maintaining continued visibility. After inserting the scope into the body, the lens can become obstructed due to smudging, condensation, and/or direct contact with body tissue and fluids. In order to provide the surgeon with a clear view, the scope often needs to be removed from the body cavity, cleaned, and then reinserted. During some procedures, it is not uncommon to remove and clean the scope 10-20 times, substantially lengthening the procedure and possibly leading to other complications. Thus, there is a need of a method and device to clean the lens of a scope that does not require removing it from a body cavity.
The minimally invasive lens cleaner of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.